Politics
Abaribe Advocates Full Electronic Voting To Enthrone Credible Elections

The Senator-elect for Abia South Senatorial District, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe, has called for full electronic voting in the country in order to enthrone transparent and credible elections.
Abaribe was re-elected for a sixth tenure in the Upper Chamber in last Saturday’s National Assembly (NASS) elections on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
He spoke on his victory and the challenges that characterised the electoral process in an interview with newsmen in his Obingwa country home on Thursday.
He said: “I am one of those that believed that the process of the elections was flawed.
“But I call for calm and peace and people should resort to the legal means to redress the error.
“It is such a bloody shame that INEC will manipulate the scores by candidates.
“It happens because the result sheets are in the hands of INEC officials.
“We should introduce full electronic voting that is tamper-proof.
“It is possible. We are in electronic age.
“It is time we got adapted to modern technology.
“We cannot continue to play with our existence.”
The former Senate Minority Leader said that it had become shameful that the country’s electoral process was still being conducted manually.
He said that the practice where result sheets were often mutilated with written, cancelled and re-written scores in the process of falsification to rig elections was debasing to the country’s image.
Abaribe said that INEC dashed the people’s hope for a fair and credible exercise with its failure to achieve electronic transmission of results from the polling units to its portal.
“Throughout its planning stages, INEC kept assuring us that it was prepared to conduct credible elections so we thought that everything would work smoothly,” he said.
According to him, the transmission of results electronically failed, coupled with the failure of other logistics for the distribution of electoral materials.
“The sensitive materials did not arrive early and they were found in the hands of those, who had no business with them,” he further said.
Abaribe, who polled 49,693 votes, also spoke on how he roundly defeated Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu, who came a distant third with 28,422 votes.
“The margin of defeat would have been massive, if the process had worked well without hitches here and there,” he said.
He attributed his victory to his quality representation to his constituency and being closer to the grassroots.
“My title is “Mma aya (sword) Ndigbo worldwide.
“I have the love of the Igbo nation. My people love me.
“It is good to always be with your people, stand for them always and make yourself accessible to them.
“My people showed me love and it is sweet victory for the downtrodden, civil servants and pensioners, who are owed arrears of salaries,” he said.
He promised to reward his constituents for their trust by remaining a strong and consistent voice in the National Assembly.
Abaribe took a swipe at the outgoing Ikpeazu-led administration for its lacklustre performance in eight years.
“Abia gets tax revenue, revenue from oil derivation and not owed Federal Allocation for both the state and Local Government councils yet the government cannot pay salaries and pensions,” he said.
Abaribe, who was a founding member of PDP, said that the party’s poor showing in the NASS election had further buried PDP in Abia.
“PDP is gone and buried along with the Progressive Peoples Alliance that transmutted itself into PDP.
“They have ended up grounding the party and themselves,” he said, adding that APGA would work hard to install Prof. Greg Ibe as the next governor.
“We will fight for Ibe to become the governor to repair the rot that the PDP-led government had caused in its eight years in the state,” he said.
Politics
Rivers Gov’ship: Obuah Congratulates Fubara, Hails Rivers People

The Director-General of the 2023 Campaign Council of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Bro Felix Obuah, has congratulated the Governor-elect, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, on his resounding victory at the March 18, Governorship election in the State.
Bro. Obuah in his congratulatory statement commended the calm disposition and the steady mobilizing spirit of the Governor-elect throughout the electioneering campaign which endeared him the more to the electorate as demonstrated by their massive votes.
Rivers people, Bro. Obuah noted, cannot but thank God for the successful polls in the face of daunting tasks.
Bro Obuah who is also the immediate past State PDP Chairman expressed greater joy that the winning streak of his regime has continued to bear fruit in the State.
According to him, Sir Sim Fubara is another choice rightly made by the people to continue to enjoy good governance and dividends of democracy at its best which is the result of the choice of His Excellency, Chief Barr. Nyesom Ezenwo Wike in 2015 and 2019, respectively.
“I give kudos to our Rivers people for their appreciation of all the good works of our indefatigable ‘Mr. Quality Projects’ which they expressed through their massive votes for our Governor-elect and all the PDP candidates in the just concluded elections,” Bro Obuah expressed.
He said the PDP-led government in the state is spurred by the people’s gratitude and poised to do more for the people as a new political dispensation gets underway.
He thanked Governor Wike for his foresight, courage and unwavering spirit to raise the bar of political leadership in the State which is gradually taking roots in the land as a tradition.
Bro Obuah also commended the community heads, traditional rulers, women groups, religious groups, and the youths for listening to the voice of reason which contributed to making the 2023 election in the state a good one.
The Director-General of the Rivers State PDP Campaign Council also congratulated the 32 candidates of the PDP that won the 32 seats in the State House of Assembly and all National Assembly members elected on the platform of the PDP.
He said now that the elections were over, it was time for all hands to be on deck for the much desired peaceful atmosphere necessary for good governance.
He dedicated the PDP victory to all Rivers people and pledged his usual fatherly support to the leadership for a more united and better Rivers State.
Politics
Abia Gov’ship Election Result: Social Media Report Fake, Says INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has denounced an online report accusing its Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu of attempts to violate its guidelines and consequently distort the Governorship election result in Abia State.
Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi said the only communication sent to the State Returning Officer was the commission’s directive suspending further collation of results.
He said; “The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu never called the Returning Officer to give her a directive. Rather, the Returning Officer wanted the official communication on the Commission’s decision to suspend the collation of results in Abia State. The Chairman then directed that pending the delivery of the hard copies, the soft copies of the Commission’s letter be forwarded immediately to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Enugu State and the Administrative Secretary of Abia State.
“The Returning Officer for Abia State then directed that the contents of the letter be read aloud by the Administrative Secretary in the presence of agents of political parties, observers, the media and security personnel at the Collation Centre.
“This is what is now being mischievously interpreted as a directive to the Returning Officer on some phantom criteria at variance with the approved guidelines. There is nothing like that.
“In fact, the content of the letter is basically the same as the Commission’s Press Release dated Monday 20th March 2023 which has since been uploaded to the Commission’s social media platforms and is already in the public domain.
“The public should disregard the story as fake news”, said Oyekanmi.
A portal, Strenuous Blog, had quoted the Returning Officer as alleging that she was being forced to do the wrong thing.
According to the portal; “The INEC Presiding Officer In Abia State Nnenna Oti had this to say…’I’m Professor Nnenna Oti from Afikpo. I am the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri, The people’s mandate shall stand. I have spent all my adult life in pursuit of the ideals of good governance. We shall stand by the these principles. The pastor in me (she is a Pastor with the RCCG) and the mother in me will not permit me to do anything that will adversely affect the future of our children. I shall do right by God and by man!’
“Then to the shock and surprise of everyone in the hall, she said that the INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, personally called her and gave her directives on guidelines to follow in ensuring that Abia governorship election results were collated based on some criteria but that on her own she has decided that the will of Abia voters would not be subverted under her watch.
“At that point, she asked the Administrative Secretary to read the message she said that came from the INEC headquarters Abuja”.
Checks by The Tide source revealed that the commission has no such nomenclature as “State INEC Presiding Officer”.
Politics
Declare Binani Adamawa Governor-Elect, WPF Urges INEC

The Women in Politics Forum, WPF, said Nigerian women will not allow history to repeat itself in the ongoing gubernatorial election in Adamawa State.
The WPF, a non partisan organization for women with membership across the 36 states and FCT, stated this in a statement, yesterday.
The group said Nigerian women are aware that results from 20 local government areas had been collated, giving the APC gubernatorial candidate, Senator Aishatu Binani an early and consistent lead.
The WPF advised the Independent National Electoral Commision, INEC, to ensure the results are not manipulated and that Senator Binani is given her mandate and declared as the winner of the election.
In a press release signed by the National President of the women forum, Ebere Ifendu, the forum noted that there was great misconduct in the election results collation center which she said followed the refusal by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa, to collate governorship results from Fufore local government area.
Ifendu said, “We will not accept a repeat of history. In 2011, Her Excellency, Dame Pauline Tallen contested for the Plateau State Governorship election and was cruising to Victory when announcing of results suddenly stopped, and when it was finally announced, they had stolen her mandate. This was exactly the fate of Senator Aisha Al Hassan ( mama Taraba). Her victory was also stolen. We can no longer watch our collective mandate stolen from us.
“Nigerian Women have worked hard and waited patiently for this victory and woe betide that person that will be used against the wishes and aspirations of Adamawa people and Nigerian women.
“We can confirm from our agents in Adamawa State that Senator Aishatu Binani is having overwhelming lead in Fufore Local Government.
“We are aware of the manipulation going on in the state and the role of Governor fintiri who had earlier used his state powers to frustrate Senator Binani’s campaign and has further gone ahead to tamper with the figures coming from Fufore LGA;
“…which undoubtedly is Senator Binani’s strong hold ,and originally in favour of the APC candidate, and using the state INEC officials and media to fabricate stories and raising false allegations against her .
“This is a grossly condemnable act and we are raising our voices as Nigerian women to seek immediate intervention to prohibit and abort the manipulation against Senator Binani as we see this as a daylight robbery of her mandate and an affront to Nigerian Women.
“Nigerian women are calling on INEC to ensure that the results are not manipulated and that Senator Aishatu Binani is given her mandate and declared the winner of the election.
“We are also using this medium to call on security agencies to be more effective in protecting the public against attacks by political thugs.
“We have received reports of violent attacks on innocent citizens of the state. We demand that the perpetrators of violence should be arrested and prosecuted while the police is more vigilant and proactive to prevent violence.”
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